Date: October 21, 2010

Two men have been given jail sentences and must pay $12,550 in restitution in a case in which they caused an explosion and a fire in an Auburn apartment by trying to manufacture a drug.

Shea Hunt, 36, reported to the Placer County jail on Monday, Oct. 18, to begin serving a six-month sentence and Ty Joseph Denton, 26, must report on Nov. 8 for a five-month term.

The two were sentenced Oct. 1 in Placer County Superior Court after each pleaded no contest to a felony charge of illegally manufacturing a controlled substance.

The two were making a drug known as “honey oil” in the bathroom of a unit at the Gateway Apartments when the explosion and fire occurred on March 30. The process involves the packing of marijuana into a PVC pipe and the use of butane.

Visiting Judge Richard Curtis ordered the defendants to make restitution payments to the owner of the apartments for the damage, which was confined to the bathroom.

Hunt and Denton were also fined $270 each and were placed on probation for three years. They were ordered to seek drug counseling and must submit to drug testing and to search and seizure.

Two other persons were in the apartment when the blast occurred.

One of them was a 17-year-old boy who admitted in Placer County Juvenile Court to one count of manufacturing a controlled substance. He was ordered to serve 30 days in the Placer County Juvenile Detention Center and to perform 60 hours of community service. He too must contribute payments to the $12,550 retribution amount.

Charges against the other person, a 25-year-old woman, were dismissed in the interest of justice.